Digital Storytelling, Presentation Tools, and Evaluation & Assessment

Go beyond poster presentations and PowerPoint to create meaningful student-generated multimedia-rich projects to demonstrate learning plus how to assess them!

Today will be a hands-on experience with many different tools - you will need to pick and choose where to spend your creating time!

Why incorporate digital storytelling and digital presentations?

  • Provide a variety of media for students to demonstrate what they know and understand globe_write.jpg
  • Can make accomodations for different learners and learning styles
  • Build technology skills
  • Develop communication skills
  • Demonstrate the ability to synthesize across information and media

Digital Storytelling and Presentation Tools


Digital Storytelling is conveying a story from within a digital environment. A presentation, on the other hand, may simply share information.

Jason Ohler has fantastic classroom-related digital storytelling resources.

Thought questions on Jason Ohler's website:
1. How is storytelling related to literacy?
2. How is art related to storytelling?
3. What are DAOW, media literacy, and media fluency?
4. What are some different kinds of stories?
5. Look at the examples - what do you notice?



So what is a story? (and really, many of the elements below can apply to a presentation too)
7 elements of a story (Tutorial) Adapted from StoryCenter.org:
1. Point of View - what is your point? What is the goal?
2. Dramatic Question - the action, tension, central desire...
3. Emotional Content or paradigm - inspirational, love, loneliness, friendship...
4. Gift of your voice - your audio recording (practice and relax, be conversational)
5. Power of soundtrack - music, sound effects, your own lyrical narration (watch copyright)
6. Economy - the sequence of events, images, text - (keep it simple)
7. Pacing - the rhythm, planned and telling pauses, starts and stops
Perhaps you prefer a visual representation of the above information?

Effective digital storytelling and presentations

Process (very simplified)
1. Write the story / gather information, synthesize, write
2. Storyboard the image ideas and organize the content (Printable Paper has storyboards)
3. Create the story in a digital environment (college media, organize, write script, create)
4. Share with others



Digital Environments Overview and Examples
Easy (single frame/element)
Medium
Complex
Blabberize A single photo to which you give voice narration
VoicethreadUse images to create an electronic slide show - what is unique is the ability for others to provide comments and feedback via text, audio, video.
Xtranormal Write a script, select characters, define their actions, identify camera angles to create a movie. Text to speech is computer-generated.
Voki A single talking avatar which can use your voice or text to speech
GlogsterCreate multimedia poster projects that incorporate text, photos, video, graphics. There is a page on this wiki dedicated to glogster with helpful details.
PreziThink of this as a linear presentation authored and shown within a 3D sphere of action. So there is depth and transitions to any direction available.
yodio Create a narration to accompany a photo
Domo animate create simple animations


PhotoPeach: Create a lively and vivid slideshow by moving your photos like a video with your choice of background music, captions on each photo


animoto.com This tool analyzes an uploaded set of images, video and text to creates a music video. Very easy to create elegant picture shows.


zooburst Create a 3D popup book.


StorybirdCreate a book with art-inspired stories you make to share, read, and print.


Make Beliefs Comixcreate comics


PikikidsUse your own photos to create a comic book style page


Toondoocreate comics


Create timelines at Dipity


Download: Microsoft Photo Story 3
Download: Windows Live Movie Maker 2011

More Storytelling environments:
50 Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story

Visit the January 26 wiki page to discover WHERE to find creative commons-licensed images as well as fun editing environments for special effects!

Find music to use at Jamendo and RoyaltyFreeMusic.com

Read more

Digital Storytelling Tools for Educators by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano-Free book download
Web 2.0 Storytelling overviewby Bryan Alexander will push your thinking about what is defined as a story and where it can be published.

Evaluation and Assessment.


Be sure to return to Jason Ohler's assessment page!

Rubistar.Rubistar is a free online tool for creating quality rubrics. Rubrics are created based on a topic. Sample topics include; oral projects, multimedia, math, writing, products, reading, art, work skills, science and music. Registered users can save and edit rubrics anywhere there is online access. According to the Rubistar site, rubrics can help students and teachers define "quality" work. Rubrics can also help students judge and revise their own work before handing in their assignments. Use the search function to find rubrics already created by others. Click the create button on the front page and see how easy it is to create a rubric at Rubistar!

Google Forms.
Google Docs are a great collaborative space - word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, gadgets, and more!
Tom Barrett has a collaborative Google Presentation highlighting 32 Interesting Ways to Use Google Docs in the Classroom.
If your students are going to collect and analyze data, here is a possibleexternal image msword.png survey checklist.doc to evaluate their work.

Want to use Google Forms in your classroom? A Form is part of the Google Spreadsheet, which is part of Google Docs. You need a Google Account. You may use any email address as your login for a Google Account ID - and a confirmation will be required. Setting up a Google Account ID:external image pdf.png googleid.pdf Google is testing verification by text message instead of email - if you do not have a text messaging plan, follow the "contact us" link on the verification page to request account activation.
Getting started with Google docs: external image pdf.png Google+Docs+Info.pdf
Take Google Forms one step further - turn your form into a self-grading activity (think quiz, exit ticket, quick comprehension check, etc.) - learn more with this 9 minute video tutorial.

Google has a whole section dedicated to Google Docs for Educators.
Gmail address aliases (variations using "." or "+") - from gmail, or perhaps this explanation or this explanation,

10 Google Forms for the Classroom
Further Adventures in Google Docs
Self-Grading Quizzes using Google Forms

Visit the 21 Things for 21st Century Educators Evaluation and Assessment page for more information.

Evaluation


Image Credit: Favicon of Ronda Del Boccio, the Story Lady, http://www.flickr.com/photos/thestorylady/4039271995/